1,780 Quotes by Abraham Lincoln

We can not have free government without elections; and if the rebellion could force us to forego, or postpone a national election it might fairly claim to have already conquered and ruined us.

Every man over forty is responsible for his face.

If the negro is a man, why then my ancient faith teaches me that ‘all men are created equal,' and that there can be no moral right in connection with one man's making a slave of another.

Friendship is the start for what you call love.

A friend is one who has the same enemies as you have.

A capacity and taste for reading gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others.

I am an optimist because I don't see the point in being anything else.

My father taught me to work, but he did not teach me to love it.

I believe each individual is naturally entitled to do as he pleases with himself and the fruit of his labor, so far as it in no wise interferes with any other mans rightsthat each community, as a State, has a right to do exactly as it pleases with all the concerns within that State that interfere with the right of no other State, and that the general government, upon principle, has no right to interfere with anything other than that general class of things that does concern the whole.